RICK SMITH: The humble beginning of Roscoe the Ram

Standard-Times file photos Wiley Burrus with the Angelo State University mascot he created in 1970.

The modern version of Roscoe at an ASU game in September 2012.

SAN ANGELO, Texas - When Angelo State University freshman Wiley Burrus injured his leg during spring training in 1970, he decided to help the football team another way — he became Roscoe the Ram, ASU's first-ever wild and woolly mascot.

"When I was hurt, I still really wanted to do something for the school," he said. "What popped into my head was a mascot."

Now, of course, Roscoe's a household name in San Angelo. He takes part in dozens of gatherings at ASU, elementary schools and in the community each year.

Back in the early 1970s, ASU had a live Rambouillet ram mascot that didn't really do much to excite the crowd. Wiley, however, was willing to run around in a funny ram suit to stir up fans at games, pep rallies and other events.

Wylie wasted no time making his plan reality.

"I went to the cheerleading squad and explained what I wanted to do," he said.

The cheerleaders' sponsor said they would welcome the Roscoe mascot, but there was one problem: money.

"There wasn't any money for mascots in their budget," said Wiley, who now lives in North Carolina.

"If you want to do it, it'll all be up to you," the sponsor told him.

Where there's wool there's a way.

"I decided I would do it myself," Wiley said.

He began experimenting, molding papier-mâché around a motorcycle helmet.

He used $5 worth of chicken wire to form the ram's papier-mâché horns, placed a window screen over a hole in the head he used for seeing and breathing, begged a bag of wool from a company on Bell Street and started the painstaking job of gluing the wool onto the ram's head.

The rest of his costume included a blue vest his grandmother sewed for him and a pair of blue athletic shorts.

There was one problem. Roscoe's head — 4 feet from horn to horn — was heavy and cumbersome and difficult to carry to games.

"The first time I took Roscoe out was to the second game of the year in San Marcos," he remembered. "We had an issue transporting something so big."

The head was too big to fit into a car trunk, so Wylie found a friend with a pickup, dropped the head in the back and headed down the road.

"We got there just in time for the game," he remembered. "I was standing in the parking lot, putting this thing on and people were staring at me like I was from the moon."

But when he ran through the end zone gate and across the field just before the game, "the ASU side erupted," he remembered. "They went crazy. Nobody knew that was going to happen."

Even so, when the season ended, Wiley decided Roscoe needed a face-lift.

"It was so hot in the first one," he said. "There was not much air circulation inside the head. I always was glad to see halftime when I could take it off."

The second version of Roscoe's head was slimmer and sleeker.

"I could see out of it pretty well, and I had a lot of fun with it," Wiley said. "I would interact with the football players and fans."

He also would get on the ground with the "real" Roscoe, who was ASU's live Rambouillet ram mascot.

"We would be head-to-head," Wylie said. "He got agitated a time or two and started pawing the ground. That's when I knew it was time to get out of there."

A self-described ham, Wiley also enjoyed going up into the stands to greet fans.

"They were so receptive," he said, "and the little kids just loved Roscoe."

After two years of playing the mascot, Wiley passed Roscoe to his fraternity brothers in Pi Kappa Alpha. The fraternity has kept the tradition.

"Sometime after I left ASU they bought Roscoe the kind of suit they're using now," he said.

Wylie said he's still amazed that a project he started on a whim still exists more than 40 years later.

"I'm really proud of Roscoe," he said. "I hope he goes on another 40."